Safe If We Stand Close Together: Safety Instructions Not Included
by setepenre-set
Summary: There aren't any guidelines for being best friends with an alien, no map key, no index, no safety instructions. Roxanne tries, so very hard, to get it right in spite of this.
1. Chapter 1

"Syx," Roxanne says. "Have you thought about wearing, you know, clothes-clothes?"

"Someday," Syx says, watching Roxanne put her notebooks, crayons, gluestick, colored pencils, markers, pencils, and scissors in her backpack.

They're going to their new school tomorrow (well, it's a new school for Syx—it's Roxanne's new/old school) and Roxanne is feeling a little nervous.

"Someday?" Roxanne asks, looking up at him. "Why 'someday'?"

"Jumpsuits are gender neutral," Syx says. "Anything else won't be appropriate for me until adol-e-sents."

That one takes Roxanne a minute to decipher.

"Adolescence?" she asks.

"Ah," Syx says, flipping open her box of crayons and beginning to re-organize them by color. "Yes. Adolescence. Anything else won't be appropriate for me until adolescence. Minion is such a stickler for—" He cuts himself off as he looks up at her and tilts his head quizzically. "Why?"

"No reason," Roxanne says quickly. If the jumpsuits are a cultural thing, then she's hardly going to— "I was just wondering."

"You seem—" Syx frowns, "worried?"

"I'm just nervous," Roxanne says. "About tomorrow."

"About—my clothes? In relation to tomorrow? Oh. Because I—won't be dressed like everyone else?"

"No! No, it's—"

"I think," Syx says, smiling crookedly, "that they're probably going to notice the blueness and the baldness and the…giant-headed-ness before they notice my clothes?" His smile fades into a look of uncertainty. "Do you—does it bother you that I dress like this?"

"No!" Roxanne says. "Syx, they're your clothes!"

He doesn't look especially reassured.

"Do you think my clothes are going to make everybody hate me again?" he asks in a small voice.

"No!" Roxanne says. "And if—if somebody dislikes you because of your clothes, then they aren't worth being friends with anyway. Same goes for you being—blue and bald and having a big head. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked about the clothes. I didn't know it was a culture thing. I wasn't trying to be rude."

"You weren't rude," Syx says, eyes going wide. "You can ask me questions! You can always ask me questions! Even about culture things. Especially about culture things." He sets down the crayon he's holding and places his fingertips on Roxanne's wrist instead. "I'm nervous about tomorrow, too."

Roxanne lets out a relieved breath.

"Okay," she says, "but. We're going to be okay."

Syx nods.

"We're going to be okay," he repeats. "And the—the jumpsuits are okay?"

"I don't care what you wear, Syx," Roxanne says, "as long as you don't mind wearing them. You—do you mind?" she asks.

(Syx did say that she could ask).

Syx shrugs.

"Not—really?" he says. "It really is pretty close to what I'd be wearing on Mega'x. Everybody wore jumpsuits there that I remember. Not orange though. And not this loose."

"Maygaox?" Roxanne asks, trying to pronounce the word like Syx had. "Is that the name of your planet?"

"Mega'x," Syx says. "It—yes, that's—"

"Mega'x," Roxanne repeats, copying his pronunciation, managing to get the glottal stop right this time.

"But you wouldn't call it that," Syx says, "because you're not from there. The 'x' sound indicates possession. When it falls at the end of the word, it means 'mine' or 'my'. So you'd say 'x'Mega."

"x'Mega?" Roxanne says carefully. She isn't used to words with an 'x' sound at the beginning.

"Yes, like—like that. Because the 'x' sound being the first syllable means 'yours' or 'your'. So you'd say it like that if you were talking to me or Minion. If you were talking to someone else about us and it, you'd say x'x'Mega. Because the double 'x' sound at the beginning means 'theirs'. And if you're just talking to someone else about the planet, and not mentioning me and Minion, you just say 'Mega'."

"What do you and Minion call," Roxanne pauses for a moment, and then says, "x'Mega when you're talking to each other?"

"x'Mega'x," Syx says. "The 'x' at the beginning and the end means 'ours'."

"What if the possession is the other way around?" Roxanne asks. "I mean, what if I wanted to say something about—I don't know, the ocean on x'Mega or something? x'Mega's ocean?"

"xss'Mega roh,' is what you would say," Syx tells her, elongating the 'x' sound into a hiss.

"Roh is 'ocean'?" Roxanne asks.

Syx nods.

"So 'Rox'," Roxanne says, "means—"

"My ocean," Syx finishes.

"That's so cool!" Roxanne says. "Does the rest of my name mean anything?"

"Sort of," Syx says. "aa-hn is 'sky' and the 's' sound is indicative of affection. The grammar is a bit—ehh, but you could stretch a translation to 'my ocean, my beloved sky'. Which sounds pretty! Even if it doesn't actually, you know. Mean anything."

"It is pretty," Roxanne says, beaming. "So what's wrong with the grammar?"

"Well—" Syx takes a breath and Roxanne props her chin on her hand, ready to hear the explanation.


	2. Chapter 2

Syx says, later, that it could have been worse.

And maybe he's right (he is; he is right, she knows; 'Lil Gifted proved that, proved how bad things could be) but—Roxanne knows that it could have gone so much better, too, and it just isn't fair.

Miss Anderson, their new teacher, is definitely a better teacher than Miss Simmons.

(although that's not really saying much, Roxanne thinks. There are things living under rocks that are better teachers than Miss Simmons.)

Even though all the kids know Roxanne—this is her old school, after all—Miss Anderson still has Roxanne introduce herself, too, before Syx. Roxanne thinks maybe she does it like that so Syx won't feel so singled out, and that's good, if their teacher is worried about Syx feeling uncomfortable. Roxanne approves.

The teacher writes both of their names on the board, and when Syx corrects her spelling of his name, she doesn't get upset, just erases it and writes it over again, correctly this time.

"—and this is Minion," Syx says, holding onto Minion's orb (Minion decided that he shouldn't take his robot body to school on the first day, not wanting to scare anybody).

Miss Anderson nods and smiles at this, but she doesn't write Minion's name on the board, and that—that bothers Roxanne.

(…because Minion is a person, Roxanne thinks, as they go to their desks. Minion is a person, so he deserves to have his name on the board, just the same as Roxanne and Syx.)

They have math—they're doing simple division; it's ridiculously easy—and then reading. Miss Anderson has them read out loud from a story about a duck named Henry who's trying to make dinner for his friend and ends up ruining his whole house instead. This, too, is ridiculously easy. Roxanne reads ahead and finishes the story on her own, even though she knows teachers get mad if they catch you doing that. The story is pretty funny, actually, though. It reminds her of Syx, trying to make a poptart when he came over for her birthday, and setting the toaster on fire instead.

She glances over at Syx, biting the inside of her cheek to keep from grinning. He's finished the story, too, she sees, and when he meets her gaze, his eyes are laughing and she can tell he's thinking about Mr. Toasty and her birthday party, too.

After reading, they do phonics workbooks, and then it's time for lunch.

Miss Anderson tells Syx that she wants to talk to him, right before she has everyone line up and leave for lunch. Roxanne, her stomach clenching, exchanges another glance with Syx, and even though they're thinking the same thing again, this time neither of them look like they want to laugh.

Roxanne stops at the doorway of the classroom and waits for Syx. Miss Anderson didn't say she wanted to talk to her, but Roxanne's stomach is still twisting horribly and she can't bring herself to leave Syx alone in the classroom with a teacher. Miss Anderson seems nice, but Miss Simmons acted nice, too, at first, and maybe Miss Anderson is just better at pretending.

Miss Anderson looks over at Roxanne, frowns slightly, and opens her mouth like she's going to tell Roxanne to go to lunch with everybody else, but then she glances at Syx, sees the worried look he darts at Roxanne. For a second, her frown deepens, and then it smooths out into a kind smile.

"You're not in trouble, Syx," Miss Anderson says reassuringly. "I think we've been having a very good first day, don't you?"

Syx does that surprised-freezing thing he does when he's caught off-guard, when he's not sure how to respond to something. He clutches Minion's ball a little tighter.

"But," Miss Anderson says, "we don't do show and tell in this grade, Syx, and I'm afraid it isn't appropriate to bring our pets to school."

Roxanne's stops breathing; she sees Syx's eyes go round, sees Minion's eyes go big, too.

Miss Anderson smiles again.

"Now, like I said, you're not in trouble," she says. "I know the first day at a new school can be confusing, and sometimes it's hard to know the rules in a new place. So I'm not going to make a big deal of it, today, but from now on I'm going to need you to leave your pet fish at home, okay?"

Syx doesn't respond.

Miss Anderson gives him another kind smile.

"Now why don't you and Roxanne go ahead and head down to lunch," she says.

They walk down the hall together, Syx holding Minion's sphere to his chest, Roxanne's fingers curled tight in the material of Syx's sleeve.

Syx's breathing is getting shallow and fast and the whites are showing all around the green of his eyes. Roxanne squeezes his arm and tries to think quickly. They can't go to the lunchroom with Syx like this. And she doesn't want to take him to the nurse's office; Syx doesn't need a stranger trying to talk to him. They can't stop in the hallway, though, either; someone's bound to come along. They can't go to the bathroom together, like they could if they were both girls—there's a janitor's closet between the boys' and girls' bathrooms; they could hide there, maybe. But the janitor might be in there, or might come in, and then they'd be in just as much trouble as if Roxanne took Syx to the girls' bathroom. Where—

The library.

The library is across the hallway from the bathrooms; if Roxanne remembers right, Mrs. Levinson, the librarian, should be eating lunch in the teacher's lunchroom now.

She looks in quickly as they go to pass the library; Mrs. Levinson's desk is empty, and there isn't anyone at the tables or between the shelves that Roxanne can see. Roxanne pulls Syx inside and down one of the aisles between the shelves, then turns down another aisle so that they'll be better hidden from sight if Mrs. Levinson or anybody else does happen to come in unexpectedly.

Roxanne pushes on Syx's shoulders and he sits on the floor, his back wedged into the corner between the shelf and the wall, Minion's ball still held to his chest.

"It's okay; we're okay," Roxanne whispers rapidly, kneeling down with him. "We're safe; we're safe here and we're going to be okay."

Minion looks almost as agitated as Syx. Roxanne pushes down her own worry and wraps one arm around Syx's shoulders, her other arm around Minion's ball.

"—Sir—" Minion says.

"—I—I k-know, Minion; I know—" Syx whispers, sounding close to tears.

"—we're going to be okay; it's going to be okay," Roxanne promises them both, promises herself.

She's holding Syx tightly, but it doesn't seem to be enough, still, somehow; she can feel him trembling, hear him struggling to control the hitching of his breath as he tries not to cry.

(it doesn't make sense, but Roxanne feels like if she could just hold him tightly enough, hold him close enough, she could fix everything.)

"—it's okay," Roxanne says, squeezing him, Minion's ball held between their bodies. "we're going to be okay."

They stay like that for several minutes, just breathing.

"We could just tell Miss Anderson," Roxanne suggests uncertainly, later, the three of them sitting in a circle now, Syx and Roxanne each leaning against bookshelves, Minion over by the wall. "About Minion, I mean. She—she seems nice, right? So—"

"It's not just that, though, Miss Roxanne," Minion says, fins fluttering. "It's not just her."

"It's every single teacher we have after her," Syx says. "It's all the other people at the school, it's all the people they tell…"

"Minion," Roxanne says, voice unsure. "Why—why don't you want people to know you can talk?"

Syx and Minion exchange a glance. Syx bites his lip.

"It's—" he hesitates. "Minion learned to talk later than I did. People—at home, at the prison—nobody figured that he'd be able to talk, at first, and then…it was safer, we thought, the fewer people knew. The—the less people noticed Minion."

"But why?" Roxanne asks. "People—don't treat you like a person, Minion; it's not right. That can't really be safer, can it?"

"They didn't want to treat me like a person, either," Syx says quietly.

Roxanne looks at him.

"At 'Lil Gifted, you mean?" she asks.

Syx gives an unhappy sort of laugh.

"No," he says, "no, that was—I wasn't talking about that. It was—before that. Worse—? Worse, maybe, than that."

Roxanne feels her eyes go round with horror.

"Worse?" she whispers.

"I don't—I don't know; it's hard to categorize—it could have. Been worse. If it had worked. If—they—had…if they had gotten what they wanted—it would have been really bad, I think."

"…they?" Roxanne asks.

Syx reaches out to touch Minion's ball. Roxanne crawls across the aisle and takes his other hand. Syx squeezes it gratefully, takes a shuddery breath.

"When Minion and I landed in the prison, Warden and—and Doctor Kelly—they were the ones who filled out the refugee paperwork for me," Syx says. "But—like I said, Minion wasn't talking at all, yet, and he doesn't look like people here expect—people—to look. So they thought he was a pet."

"And so they didn't fill out any paperwork for me," Minion says.

"Yes," Syx says, "so they didn't fill out any paperwork for Minion. And even though they did register me—they didn't report it to the government exactly like they were supposed to."

Roxanne frowns, confused.

"On purpose?

Syx nods.

"Why?"

Syx looks at her, a serious expression on his face.

"Bad things happen to people like me when the government gets them," he says. "Things with—labs and. Experiments. The—the not good kind of experiments."

"—oh," Roxanne says.

"Some people—from the government—came by the prison, when they figured out that I was there," Syx goes on, looking at the floor. "They talked to me and they made me take tests, and they—they were mad, I could tell, that the Warden hadn't given me to them before. They tried to get me to go with them, and then they tried to make me go with them, and when I wouldn't…they tried to have be declared non-sapient. Non-intelligent. Not—not a person."

Roxanne's mouth falls open. Non-intelligent? How could anyone think—?

"—but that's crazy!" she says, "that's crazy, Syx; all they'd have to do is talk to you and they'd see—they'd know that you were a person!"

"Parrots talk," Syx spits the words out with such bitterness that Roxanne guesses he's quoting one of the government people. "Animals can be trained. Perhaps the subject's caretakers are even unaware of the fact that they've trained it." He looks at Roxanne and gives her a hard smile. "Have you ever heard of Clever Hans?"

"I—no," Roxanne says. "Syx—"

"Well, there was this horse, you see," Syx says, still smiling that unhappy smile. "Named Clever Hans. And it was supposed to be able to answer—oh, all sorts of questions! Math and music and spelling. Its owner had it perform in shows, and it would tap out the answers with its hooves."

He laughs.

"You'd think that the owner would be a fraud, wouldn't you?" he continues, "But no, they investigated it, and it turns out the horse could read the unintentional physical cues of the person asking the question. That's how it knew when to stop tapping. It didn't actually know the answers to the questions, it just responded instinctively to the way people were acting. The only way to test it, though, was to ask the horse questions that the questioner didn't know the answer to."

Syx looks away from Roxanne, looks at the bookshelf in front of them.

"That's the way they tested me," he says. "And eventually, the judge did rule that I was sentient. Eventually."

"Syx," Roxanne says.

"They weren't very interested in Minion," Syx says. "He wasn't sufficiently humanlike enough to hold their attention. But if they find out—what Minion can do…we might not get the same judge, next time. That's—that's why we don't just tell people. That's why it's safer."

"It'll be all right, Sir," Minion says, voice soft. "I can stay home; Miss Roxanne will be here with you, and I trust her."

"But that's not fair," Syx says wretchedly. "That's not fair to you, Minion; what about you? You deserve to get to go to shool, too!"

"Sir, we both know I don't really—learn fast enough to keep up," Minion says, a forced sort of reasonableness in h is voice. "I can't read very well, I can barely write at all—"

"You have trouble reading?" Roxanne asks, feeling guilty and dismayed.

How could she have missed something like that?

"You're not stupid, Minion; don't talk like that!" Six hisses. "I told you; your brain just works different. Of course a system of informational exchange based on writing isn't going to come naturally to you; you have fins instead of hands; the whole concept of written language is entirely incompatible with your physical, social, and intellectual structure—"

"Sir, I only understood about a third of the words you just said," Minion says flatly.

"Syx is right, Minion," Roxanne says sharply. "Don't talk like you're stupid."

"Miss—"

"No," Roxanne says, "no, there has to be another way. We can figure this out; we can."

Minion and Syx both look at her. Minion's expression is resigned, but Syx—

Syx looks hopeful.

"We can figure it out," she repeats.

(there has to be another way. this can't be as impossible as it seems. it can't be. she won't let it be.)

"We're going to make this be okay," she promises. "We're going to make it be okay."

* * *

 _...to be continued._

 _notes: the book referenced is Henry's Awful Mistake, by Robert M. Quackenbush._

 _(I know this update took a long time, but I hope you all enjoyed it and are still interested in the story!)_


	3. Chapter 3

"Okay," Roxanne says, trying to sound as confident as possible. "So—if we're going to come up with a plan, I need to understand some things."

"What things?" Syx asks.

"Well—I mean, I know that Minion isn't anything like your pet, and I know he isn't a servant, but—Minion, you always call Syx 'sir', and I don't completely understand what you guys _are_ to each other."

"Oh!" Syx says, "it's—"

He frowns and looks over at Minion, who is also frowning.

"—I'm not sure how to describe it," Syx finishes slowly.

"Family?" Roxanne says.

"Family, definitely," Syx says.

"Brothers? Cousins?" Roxanne asks.

"Something like that, but not exactly," Minion says. "I—help Sir. I look after him."

"…like—a babysitter?" Roxanne asks hesitantly, sure that can't be right, but still not understanding.

"Oh, no!" Minion says. "It's a lifelong thing. Sir and I are bonded."

"Bonded?"

"Yes, it's a kind of—pheromonal, emotional—link between a M'ega and a Mnyn," Syx says.

"A Mnyn," Roxanne repeats the word. "That's what Minion is? Why—" she cuts herself off, shaking her head.

"What?" Syx asks.

"I—" Roxanne hesitates, "—well, I mean—why is his name Minion, then? That would be like—naming me _'Human'_ or Syx _'Mega'_."

Their reaction isn't as negative as she feared, though; Syx laughs and Minion makes a scoffing sound.

"Bipeds," Minion says, rolling his eyes. "You and your—morbid insistence on names!"

"Morbid?" Roxanne says, "Wait—the—Mnyn—don't have names?"

"We have use-names!" Minion says, "Nicknames. Given to us by people we spend time with! But we don't have fixed names until after we die and we're added to the History Song."

"That's what I meant," Syx says, "about written language being completely foreign to Minion's physical, social, and intellectual structure. They didn't even use writing; their history was oral and gestural."

"Names," Minion mutters, giving a shudder, "so creepy! I don't know which is worse, getting a fixed name assigned to you as an infant, the way that humans do it, or making people choose their own, the way the M'ega did it."

"You chose your own name, Syx?" Roxanne asks.

"Not yet," Syx says, shaking his head. "I'll do that when I hit adol-e—adolescence."

"So…'Syx' isn't—your real name?"

"It's what my parents called me," he says. "It means—'my love' or 'my dear'.

"—that's why you call him 'Sir'!" Roxanne says, understanding striking. "And that's why you call me 'Miss Roxanne'! Because you think using our real names would be morbid!"

Minion makes a face.

"Talking about you like you've already died," he says.

"So you don't ever use people's names?" Roxanne asks.

"Well—you can," Minion says, waving a fin. "But it would be—almost like profanity."

"That," Roxanne says, "is so interesting! Do _you_ think it's weird that humans get names when they're born, Syx?"

"I—honestly, yes," Syx says. "Like—telling someone what their favorite color has to be! It doesn't seem fair."

"…huh," Roxanne says, "yeah. I never thought of it like that. It is kind of unfair. But—" she shakes her head and waves a hand, "—the bond thing. That's—what the Mnyn and the M'ega do? When you're born, you get assigned to someone? That seems even more unfair than choosing someone's name for them."

"No, no!" Syx says, gesturing, "No, it's—the bond doesn't work unless the Mnyn and the M'ega both want it to. You couldn't ever _force_ a bond."

"Well, that's a relief," Roxanne says. "But what if—what if you never find the right person to bond with? Would you guys be stuck wandering around alone forever, unbonded?"

Syx frowns.

"Well, I mean—most people were unbonded."

Roxanne tips her head curiously.

"Only some Mnyn want to bond with a M'ega," Minion says. "It's a calling. Others do other things."

"And only some M'ega are bonded?"

"Yes," Minion says, "the ones who are—"

"— _different_ ," Syx says, just as Minion says, "— _special_."

"Different how?"

"Exceptional intelligence," Minion says.

"Difficulty caring for themselves," Syx says, voice quiet. "In—one way or another."

"You're smart even for your species," Roxanne says, eyes going wide. "Wow."

Syx gives her a look that's half embarrassment and half shy pleasure.

"Yes, he is," Minion says proudly.

"…yes," Syx says, "but—it wasn't just—I mean, I was very small when my parents sent me in the escape pod; they knew I'd need a caretaker then, but also—oh, you know!"

He makes a distressed face and gestures, both hands fluttering agitatedly before falling into his lap.

The fact that she doesn't actually know what it is he thinks she knows must show in Roxanne's expression because he winces, looking off towards the bookshelves.

"I don't exactly—function at maximum efficiency," he says. "People—social things—emotional— _you know._ That's not—that's not because of me being M'ega. It's because I'm— _me_."

"And Minion helps you with that," Roxanne says.

"Yes."

Roxanne bites her lip, frowning at the bookshelf in front of her without really seeing it. For a long moment the three of them are silent.

"—have you thought of a plan?" Syx asks.

She blinks and turns back to him and to Minion.

They're both watching her; even Minion looks a little hopeful, now.

Her stomach turns over with sudden nerves at the realization that they're both counting on her to come up with something.

"Maybe," she says, "I'm—I've got a couple ideas—I don't know if they'll work, though; I don't want to get your hopes up if—I need to think some more."

"Okay," Syx says. "Do you want to—"

Minion clears his throat.

"I think," he says, "that the planning can be postponed slightly. You and Miss Roxanne both need to eat."

"Oh," Roxanne blinks, realizing, for the first time, that she's hungry. "I mean—we could still—"

"—we could skip—" Syx begins.

"It's time for lunch now," Minion says firmly. "Planning can wait until after school."

Syx and Roxanne exchange a look of frustration.

"After shool, then," Syx says begrudgingly.

"Yes," Roxanne says, almost as begrudgingly as Syx, "yes, after school."

* * *

Technically speaking, Roxanne is actually supposed to go to home after school. Her mother isn't home from work yet, but Roxanne has a house key. She's supposed to get off the bus, let herself in, and start working on her homework.

But she needs to be with Syx and Minion so they can talk this over, and the Warden is waiting at the prison for the two of them to come home; he'll notice if they don't.

So Roxanne stays on the bus when her stop comes up, and waits to get off with Syx and Minion.

Hopefully she'll be able to get a ride home from the Warden or Dr. Kelley and she won't have to tell her mother about this—but even if she does end up getting in trouble—this is necessary.

Syx and Minion's room is an actual prison cell, which is…well, neither of them have ever said anything about it bothering them, but it's always struck Roxanne as—wrong.

Unfair.

It's definitely _inconvenient_ ; there isn't any real privacy. Syx turns on some music, though, something without any lyrics but with lots of everything else, especially electric guitar. He doesn't turn it up really loud, but it's loud enough to cover the sounds of their voices.

And the three of them make a quick blanket fort—they take the mattress off of the cot and prop it up on its side, one end resting against the wall, the other end leaning against the cot, so that they're enclosed in a three-sided space. Then they drape the blanket over the top and prop the pillow up under the cot, blocking the last opening.

They sit in a rough circle; Minion's ball in front of the mattress; Syx sitting crosslegged next to the edge of the cot and the pillow, and Roxanne's back to the cold concrete wall.

It's dim under the blanket; Syx takes the power source binky out from the dehydration gun he made last week and puts it in the middle of the circle.

"All right," Roxanne says in a low voice, under cover of the music, and in the safety of the blanket fort. "I've got a couple of ideas."

Syx and Minion nod, their gazes focused on her face.

"I thought of the first idea," Roxanne says, "after you said that Minion—that part of what he does, part of what he's meant to do for you, Syx, is help you with—social things and emotional things. And that you're—" she swallows, "—that most people of your species wouldn't need that. So—"

She looks between the two of them, wondering which of them is most likely to be hurt by the suggestion she has to make.

"So I know Minion isn't anything like a pet," she says, "and he's a person, he's not an animal. And Syx, you're—but—but what if we explained it like Minion was something like—not like a seeing-eye dog, but one of those—dogs that people get to help them—remember medication and things like that, and stay calm while they're panicking? That way Minion could still be there at school, even if he couldn't be a student."

"That…doesn't sound so bad," Minion says.

Syx nods slowly.

"I'd need a doctor's note," he says. "And a—a diagnosis. I don't know—I don't know what they would call—whatever it is that's wrong with me, but—"

Roxanne's breath hisses though her teeth. _Whatever it is that's wrong with him._ This is exactly what she was afraid of, making this suggestion!

"There's nothing wrong with you," she says forcefully.

Syx blinks, then frowns.

"—but there is," he says, "I told you. I'm weird even for my—"

"—Sir—"

" _Different_ ," Roxanne says. "You're _different_ , but different isn't _bad_ , Syx—"

Syx makes a dismissive noise, waves a hand.

"Anyway," he says. "we could get that from Dr. Kelley. This is absolutely a workable plan! Why didn't you think this plan would work?"

"I do think it would work," Roxanne says. "It's just—I've got another plan that I think would be better. But I don't—I don't think you're going to like it."

"I'm not going to like it?" Syx asks, "Or Minion isn't going to like it?"

"—I don't think either of you are going to like it," Roxanne says. "But I—I really, really think it's a better plan."

She looks uncertainly at them both.

"You can tell us, Miss Roxanne," Minion says, voice soothing.

"I just—" she hesitates, "I don't want you to feel like I'm being—like I'm acting like it wasn't a big deal for you, because I know it was, Syx," she says in a rush, "but I think we should have the Warden and Dr. Kelley turn in the paperwork for Minion, to get him declared sentient. And I think we should try to get the school to enroll him as a student."

Syx jerks back as if she's shoved him.

"Wh—but I told you how dangerous that would be!" he says, voice rising in agitation. "We told you! If Minion starts talking to people, if people start noticing Minion, he's going to be in danger! He's going to be in danger of them taking him away like they tried to do to me—"

"I know," Roxanne says, "but, Syx—he already is in danger."

She gestures, quick and sharp and distressed.

"If he's not legally sentient, if he's not legally a person—then they could come and try to take him away at any time. And if you keep things that way, if you never file the paperwork, never make people see him as a person—then he's always going to be in danger of that. Always, forever, for—for the rest of our lives. He's never going to be safe."

Syx looks at her with wide, stricken eyes, his breathing shallow. Minion rolls his ball closer to Syx; Roxanne can't tell if he's trying to give comfort, or needing it himself.

"Later," Syx whispers. "We can—we can do it later—when it's safer—"

"Syx," Roxanne says, fingers twisting together in her lap, "it's never going to be safer if we don't do something about this. And—I'm sorry. But I think we are going to have to do it sooner or later. And doing it now—getting them to admit he's a person now, at the school at least, even if the paperwork hasn't gone through, even if he hasn't—been officially declared sentient—getting the school to recognize him as sentient will— _set a precedent._ "

She moves her hands, remembering the way her father explained the concept to her.

"It—when something happens once," she says, "it makes it easier for it to happen again. If we let the school treat Minion like an animal, it makes it easier for other people to treat him like an animal. If we make the school treat him like a person, the next time we make people to treat him like a person, it'll be easier. If—if he has to have a hearing, him being in school is going to help make people see people that he's sentient."

There are tears in Syx's eyes, but he gulps and doesn't actually cry.

"A precedent," he repeats. "You—you really think so?"

"Yes," Roxanne says, "yes, I do, and—and I actually think—that maybe your sentience hearing set a precedent, too, Syx. Even—even if you don't get the same judge. It's still on record. It's still a precedent. There's a _precedent_ for aliens being ruled sentient."

Syx bites his lip hard; Roxanne swallows. Her fingers twitch in her lap—she wants to reach for him, wants to reach for Minion, but doesn't know if she should.

She sees Syx's fingers twitch, too, and she takes a sharp breath, reaching for his hand. He lets her take it, laces his fingers tightly with hers. Syx touches the top of Minion's orb with the fingertips of his other hand.

Roxanne reaches out for Minion, too, but doesn't quite touch the ball, not sure if Minion will want her to.

Minion rolls the ball just slightly, so that her fingertips rest on it as well.

She takes a steadying breath.

"So," she says, "what—what do you guys think?"

"Sir?"

Minion looks up at Syx, who swallows and shakes his head.

"I—I can't make this choice for you, Minion," he says. "It—you have—you have the right to decide for yourself."

Roxanne squeezes his hand.

Minion flutters his fins in an agitated way and rolls his ball from beneath their hands—rolls it back and forth, back and forth, as if he's pacing.

He's silent for several minutes; they all are. Then he stops rolling, looks at both of them.

"I still can't really read," he says.

Roxanne's heart gives a hard thud against the inside of her ribcage.

"We'll work with you," she says.

She glances over at Syx, whose face is pale.

"Yes," he says, "and—I'll—build you another body, too. Something our size—if you look more like the humans, they'll—be more likely to accept you as a person."

Minion nods, his sharp-toothed mouth set and determined.

"—are we doing this, then?" Roxanne asks.

"Yes," Minion says. "Let's do this."

Syx lets out a shuddery breath.

"We—we should go talk to Dr. Kelley and the Warden about the paperwork, then," he says.

* * *

 _...to be continued._

* * *

 **This is day five of my Nine Days of Megamind; I hope you are enjoying them! And I very much hope you all like the update to this story.**


	4. Chapter 4

Dr. Kelley's eyebrows rise steadily higher, and the Warden's frown deepens, as Syx, Roxanne, and Minion explain.

When they've finished, Dr. Kelly and the Warden exchange a look.

"John," Dr. Kelley says sharply. "You know this is a bad idea."

"Going to have to do it sooner or later," the Warden says, expression unchanged.

"We barely got away with it the first time!"

"Can't let it go forever, Len," the Warden says.

"It's an unnecessary risk!"

"Seems like a bigger risk," the Warden says, "to let it go."

"John—"

"Len."

The two of them look at each other for a moment without speaking, and then Dr. Kelley growls under his breath.

"Out!" he says, shooing Syx, Roxanne, and Minion from his office. "You kids wait in the hall."

"But—" Syx starts to say, but Dr. Kelley closes the door.

Syx sits on the floor, his back against the wall and Minion's ball in his lap. Roxanne presses her ear against the door, but, although she can hear both the Warden and Dr. Kelley's voices, she can't make out what they're actually saying. Thwarted, she sinks down beside Syx.

"Do you think the Warden can talk him into it?" she asks.

"He talked Dr. Kelley into letting Sir go to school," Minion says hopefully.

"He—he talked him into letting us spend the night at your dad's house," Syx says, chewing his lip.

Behind the door, the low sound of voices continues.

* * *

In the end, the Warden only halfway manages to talk Dr. Kelley into it. He agrees to file Minion's sentience and citizenship paperwork, but he absolutely refuses to agree to Minion enrolling in school until after the paperwork has gone through. If the school denies him enrollment, he says, it might weaken their chances of getting Minion's declared sentient.

Roxanne exchanges a frustrated look with Syx and Minion, but that, it seems, is the best they're going to get.

Dr. Kelley drives Roxanne home.

He doesn't drive nearly fast enough for Roxanne's taste; her mother will be getting home soon and Roxanne really wants to be there before she does.

"So," Dr. Kelley says, while they're stopped at a light, "I take it this was your idea, then."

Roxanne looks at him sidelong, trying to figure out if he's angry or not. He doesn't look angry—just sort of sardonically amused.

But, well, sometimes adults do look like that when they're angry.

"Minion decided," she says. Her voice sounds more defensive than she wants it to. "I didn't make him."

Dr. Kelley snorts.

"Tell me," he says, "whose idea was it to set off a paint bomb in that first so-called school of yours?"

Roxanne frowns.

"—it was Syx's," she says.

(That was weeks ago; if Syx was going to get into trouble for it, surely it would have already happened?)

"You surprise me," Dr. Kelley says dryly. "Oh—but no. Your ideas run more towards refusing to participate in gym class as a protest."

Roxanne doesn't know how to answer this, so she doesn't say anything, just stares out the windshield. Dr. Kelley gives another snort of laughter. She looks over at him.

The light changes.

"This friendship is going to be eventful," Dr. Kelley mutters.

* * *

"Haven't you finished your homework yet?" Roxanne's mother asks after she gets home.

Roxanne, who only let herself into the apartment five minutes before her mother arrived, pauses, her pencil hovering over the pages of her workbook.

"—not quite," she says.

(it's not lying. not really. it's just—it's just easier this way.)

* * *

School the next day is a bit of an ordeal.

Syx is twitchy and on-edge; Roxanne can tell he's trying to suppress it, but he's practically vibrating with nervous energy. Miss Anderson tells him that he's disturbing the other students with his pencil-tapping, then tells him the same thing when he drums his fingers on the top of his desk, and then again when he bounces his leg so hard his chair makes a squeaky noise.

What makes it even worse is that all he has to do is fidget; as always, he finishes his work way before everyone else. Miss Anderson has a small bookshelf in the corner of the classroom; she lets him get a book to read at his desk, but of course Syx finishes that pretty quickly, too.

"May-I-get-another-book-please," Syx asks, words running together the way they do sometimes when he's agitated.

"Don't you like that one?" Miss Anderson asks.

"It was enjoyable, but I've finished it now," he says, and Roxanne sees the way he's gripping the edge of his desk to keep his fingers from drumming.

Miss Anderson raises her eyebrows, but she lets him get another book.

He finishes that one, too, and has to ask to get another one. Miss Anderson's eyebrows climb even higher this time before she gives him permission. Roxanne has completed her work by now, too, and she picks out a book as well. They're not allowed to talk, but while they're both at the bookshelves, Roxanne wraps her fingers around Syx's wrist for a moment and he takes a shuddery kind of breath and leans his shoulder against hers.

Finally, mercifully, the bell rings for lunch. Miss Anderson, though, asks Syx to stay behind again, and this time when Roxanne lingers as well, she tells Roxanne that she should 'go ahead and go down to lunch', and she walks to the door to make sure Roxanne actually goes down the hall.

"What did she say?" Roxanne asks in an undertone, as Syx slides into the seat next to her at the lunch table.

"She didn't believe I'd really finished the books," Syx says in a low voice, "she said that I might be skipping things because I wanted to impress people."

Roxanne makes a noise of outrage. Syx shrugs.

"So I started reciting the books to her," he says.

Roxanne gives a gasp of half-fearful laughter.

"Did she get mad?" she asks.

"No. Maybe. I don't know," Syx says. "I hate this already."

Roxanne squeezes his hand comfortingly.

"What are you two telling secrets about?"

Roxanne looks over, surprised. Monica, Nicole, Caitlyn, and—Roxanne doesn't know what the fourth girl is called; she wasn't in their class when Roxanne went here before—are all looking at her and Syx.

"You keep whispering," Monica says.

" _Secrets secrets are no fun unless you share with everyone_ ," Caitlyn says, sing-song and sanctimonious.

"—but if you share them with everyone, then they're not actually secrets," Syx says, looking at Caitlyn like she's crazy.

"We weren't telling secrets," Roxanne says quickly, seeing the way that Caitlyn's already looking offended.

"I hate shool," Syx says, "it's not a secret."

"You mean 'school'," the fourth girl says, deftly inserting a straw into her chocolate milk.

"Please do not do that," Syx says.

The girl blinks at him.

"What?"

"Please don't correct his pronunciation," Roxanne says. "It's upsetting and sometimes he says things wrong on purpose."

"English is a ridiculous and inconsistent language," Syx mutters.

Roxanne nudges his sandwich towards him and he glares at it but picks it up and takes a bite.

The girl whose name Roxanne doesn't know blinks at him for a moment.

"—oh," she says. "Okay."

Roxanne gives her a grateful look and the girl half-smiles back, shrugs, and takes a sip of her chocolate milk.

"That's stupid," Nicole says.

Roxanne turns a glare on her.

"Saying things wrong on purpose is stupid," Monica adds.

Roxanne glares at her as well, shifting slightly, so that more of her body is shielding Syx from them.

"When did you guys get so _mean?_ " she says. "You didn't use to be so mean."

"We're not mean," Monica says, looking down her nose at Roxanne. "You just think you're better than us because you got picked to go to that fancy rich-kids school. You're back here now, though; guess you weren't so smart after all."

Roxanne opens her mouth to say _**that's** not why I'm better than you_ , which—would be an extremely rude thing to say, so it's probably best that Syx replies before she gets a chance to say it.

"Actually," he says brightly, "our guardians removed us from that shool because we built a paint bomb in response to being bullied. And Roxanne is quite brilliant."

There's a pause, wherein they all gape at Roxanne and Syx.

"Whoa," the fourth girl says.

"You built a _bomb?_ " Caitlyn asks, looking both scandalized and terrified. "And they let you come to this school?"

"Just a paint bomb," Roxanne says. "No one got hurt."

"I don't believe you," Nicole says.

"—yeah," Monica says, "there's no way you know how to build a bomb. You're just making it up."

Syx frowns.

"It was a very simple bomb," he says. "You've—seen those science fair project things, the volcanoes? Vinegar and baking soda, and then the volcano bubbles over, yes? What would happen if it didn't have a hole to bubble out of?"

"Ohh," the fourth girl says.

"Boom!" Syx says, gesturing with his sandwich. Strawberry jelly drips down his wrist. "Like that. But with paint in it, too."

"…seriously?" Monica says, looking at Roxanne, her eyes round.

"Yeah," she says, thinking it best to avoid mentioning the fire extinguisher addition to the explosion.

She has a feeling it's probably prudent to try and downplay the whole _bomb thing_ as far as possible.

The table was silent for a long moment, then Monica cleared her throat.

"I've got M&M's," she says. "You guys want some?"

She offers the bag to Roxanne first, which is as close, Roxanne knows, to a real apology as can be expected from Monica.

The six of them manage to snag the swing set before anyone else can get it first when they go out to recess. There are only four swings, but the six of them switch back and forth, taking turns pushing each other. When Syx and Roxanne are on the ground together, they make it an informal competition; whoever can get both of the people they're pushing to the top first wins.

The physical activity is a good distraction for Syx, Roxanne thinks; he looks more calm than he has all day.

There's math after they get in for recess; a review sheet on addition and subtraction before they move on to multiplication tomorrow. Syx finishes first, Roxanne second, but almost everyone else finishes fairly quickly, too.

The kid who sits in front of Roxanne, though, Gary, is struggling badly.

It's horrible to have to watch.

Gary always did have trouble, even last year, when they were just doing addition. Subtraction seems to have made things exponentially worse.

When Miss Anderson is called out to the hall by another teacher to talk, Roxanne can bear it no longer.

"Stop trying to count down," she bursts out.

Gary turns around to look at her, frowning. Roxanne makes a frustrated sound and gets out of her seat to stand next to his desk.

(there's a murmur of shock from the other kids in the classroom; she ignores it.)

Gary looks up at her, his expression bewildered.

"You keep trying to count down," she says impatiently. "But you keep getting lost when you're counting backwards. Stop counting down. Count up."

"—but it's subtraction," Gary says, looking even more confused.

"Here," Syx says. Roxanne looks up to see him standing beside her, on the other side of Gary's desk. "Look. This problem. Thirteen minus seven. You're starting with the number thirteen, right? And then counting down until you reach seven?"

Gary nods.

"And you're losing your place while counting down," Syx says.

Gary flushes dully but nods.

"But you don't have to count down from the higher number to the lower number," Syx says. He taps the problem with his finger. "You can count up from the lower number to the higher number instead."

"…but it's subtraction," Gary says again uncertainly.

"Subtraction is just the opposite of addition!" Roxanne says. "You can turn it into addition if you want to and then it's easier!"

"Here, I'll show you," Syx says. He taps the problem again. "We start at seven. Eight," he holds up a single finger, "nine," he holds up another, "ten," he holds up a third finger, "eleven," he holds up a fourth finger, "twelve," he holds up his thumb, "thirteen," he holds up his other thumb. "And now you just count the fingers!" He waggles the fingers he's holding up at Gary. "Six!"

Gary's mouth shapes itself into an O of astonishment. He scrawls a six at the bottom of the problem.

"You try one now," Roxanne says.

Another gasp goes through the room; Roxanne wonders briefly what they find so shocking now, but ignores them again.

"—nine minus five?" Gary says. "So you start at five." He looks at Syx, who nods encouragingly. "Six," Gary says, holding up a finger, "Seven. Eight. Nine." He looks at the fingers he's used to count. "Four?"

"Exactly!" Syx says.

"But what about, like, this?" Gary asks, pointing at another problem. "A hundred minus three."

"Those you will have to count up for," Roxanne says.

"It'll still be easier if you use your fingers, though," Syx says. "Start at a hundred. Ninety-nine," he says, holding up a finger, "ninety-eight," he holds up another finger, "ninety-seven," he holds up a third finger.

"Three," Gary says, and writes it down.

"Syx; Roxanne," Miss Anderson's voice takes the three of them by surprise; they all jump and look over at the doorway, where she's standing now. "I need everyone to stay in their own seats while I'm out of the room."

Roxanne flushes but goes to sit down again; Syx does as well.

She's expecting it when Miss Anderson asks the two of them to stay a few minutes after school.

"Gary didn't ask us to help him," Roxanne says, as soon as the other students are gone. "And we didn't give him the answers. He shouldn't get into trouble, too."

Miss Anderson, who had been opening her mouth to speak, closes it again, looking at faintly puzzled.

"…I see," she says.

She looks between Syx and Roxanne, a slight frown appearing between her eyebrows.

"You know you're not supposed to get out of your seats while I'm out of the room," she says.

Neither Syx and Roxanne answer, but they both nod.

"Why didn't you wait until I'd come back?" Miss Anderson says. "Why didn't you just ask permission?"

Roxanne stares at her, and then looks over at Syx. He looks back at her, his expression as shocked and confused as she's feeling.

"Because you're a teacher," Syx says, speaking for both of them. "You would have said no."

Miss Anderson blinks, and then her frown deepens.

"Where was it the two of you went to school before this?" she asks.

"'Lil Gifted," Roxanne and Syx say at the same time, in identical tones of loathing.

"—ah," Miss Anderson says, " _'Lil Gifted_."

Roxanne looks at her, surprised at her tone. There's a lot of disapproval and dislike in it. Possibly she knows Miss Simmons personally.

Miss Anderson shakes her head and gives the two of them a small smile.

"Not all classrooms are the same," she says. "And not all teachers are the same. I don't mind you helping out your classmates if they're having trouble, as long as you're not disruptive about it. No helping during tests, of course, and no simply sharing answers—but I think the two of you understand about that, don't you? And no being out of your seats while I'm gone unless I've given you permission. All right?"

She smiles at them again.

* * *

"She was _nice_ ," Syx says later, in tones of shock, the two of them sitting on the bus. "Are—are teachers usually that nice?"

"I don't think so," Roxanne says cautiously. "I mean, none of my other teachers were that nice. But none of them were as mean as Miss Simmons, either, so."

Syx makes a thoughtful kind of noise, and then the two of them lapse into silence.

* * *

The next day, when Syx and Roxanne finish their reading assignment early, Miss Anderson gives them a hall pass and lets them go to the actual library to pick out books. Which keeps Syx occupied for a longer period of time, so there's less of the fidgeting, and they have longer, more difficult books in the library, which also helps keep him occupied longer.

"—can I sit with you guys?"

Roxanne looks up, blinking. Gary is standing next to their lunch table, holding a tray and shifting nervously from one foot to the other. Nicole and Caitlyn giggle and Gary goes red, but doesn't leave.

"Yes," Syx says, after exchanging a quick look with Roxanne.

Gary drops down onto the seat across from Syx.

"Thanks," he says. "Did you guys get in a lot of trouble yesterday?"

"Oddly enough," Syx says, "no."

"Miss Anderson says we're allowed to help each other," Roxanne says. "We're just not supposed to get up while she's out of the room."

Gary looks between them, wide-eyed.

"Wow," he says. "So. Uh. Either of you guys…know anything about multiplication?"

"We haven't even started multiplication," Monica says. "Miss Anderson hasn't even explained it; why are you worried already?"

"Yes," Roxanne says, "we both know multiplication."

Gary lets out a long relieved breath.

"Oh, good," he says. He takes a bite of hamburger. "I mean," he says, words slightly muffled by hamburger, "I've just got a bad feeling about it," he swallows "You guys really get it?"

"Yes," Roxanne says. "It's not that bad. You can turn it into addition, too."

Gary blinks at her, looking confused.

"That's what times means," Syx says. "One number tells you how many times you add the other number to zero."

"Wait, really?" Gary says. "That's all it—but—how do you know which one's which?"

"Which one's which what?" Roxanne asks.

"You know," Gary says, "which number is the one you're supposed to add to zero and which number is telling you how many times you're supposed to add the other number to zero?"

"It doesn't matter," Roxanne says. "You can do a problem either way and you'll still get the same answer."

Gary frowns, clearly confused.

"Three times two is the same is two times three," Syx says. "Three times two means add three to zero two times," he holds up three fingers on one hand, then three fingers on the other hand. "It's six." He wriggles his upraised fingers at Gary, then drops his hands. "And two times three means add two to zero three times," he holds up two fingers on one hand, then two more, holds up two fingers on his other hand, and wriggles his upraised fingers at Gary again. "It's still six."

Gary's jaw drops and Syx shrugs, a sharp twitch of his shoulders.

"Whoa," Gary says.

Sys shrugs again, another of those jerky, twitchy movements, and drops his gaze to the tabletop.

"You guys are really smart."

Roxanne makes a noise of vague agreement—Gary's right; Syx is really smart—but to be honest, she's not really paying that much attention to Gary.

Syx is glaring at the tabletop, gritting his teeth, fingers drumming. When she touches his wrist lightly, he stops, and looks at her. She glances down at his lunch, and he follows her gaze, then sighs, picks up his spoon, and takes a bite of jello.

"I'm sorry," she says in a quiet voice.

Syx gives her a strained smile and waves his spoon in a sharp, dismissive motion.

"Well," he says, "things—could be a lot worse."

He means it as a reassurance, Roxanne can tell, but she frowns in discontent and frustration as she turns back to her own lunch.

Of course things could be worse; of course they could, but they could be so much better, too, and—

It just isn't fair.

* * *

 _...to be continued._

* * *

 **Happy day six of my Nine Days of Megamind! Thank you so much for continuing to read and review. I hope you all enjoyed the new chapter!**


	5. Chapter 5

On Thursdays, they have gym class. After the dodgeball ordeal of P.E class at 'Lil Gifted, going back to normal gym classes is a relief—although Roxanne definitely misses having gym class to talk to Syx and Minion.

Today, they're doing relay races on those flat, square wheel-y things that Mrs. Kimber, the gym teacher, calls 'scooters'. First they sit on them normally and propel themselves to the other side of the gymnasium and back using only their feet—then they kneel on the scooters and propel themselves with their arms—and then finally they lie down on their stomachs and use their feet again.

Mrs. Kimber's divided their class into four lines of five people; the first person does the sit-and-leg-propel move, then gives the scooter to the next person in line and moves to the back of the line. Once they've gone all the way through the line like that, they move on to the kneel-and-arm-propel move, and so on.

There's a certain amount of time, between the back of the line and the front, in which they can talk to the people standing in front and behind them. Strictly speaking, they're not supposed to talk to each other, but as long as they're not actually shouting, Mrs. Kimber pretty much turns a blind eye and a deaf ear to it.

Which makes it frustrating that Syx is in another line.

Roxanne is standing in front of Monica, though, so there is at least that. They laugh at the way Roxanne's hair keeps falling down from her ponytail—the elastic band she's using is all stretched out—and Monica offers to braid it for her. Which is risky, considering Mrs. Kimber's right there. But Monica says she can finish it quick, so Roxanne lets her, and Monica winds the elastic band around the end of the braid just in time for Roxanne to take the scooter and send herself rolling across the gym floor.

When they're both back in line again, slightly out of breath, Monica fusses briefly with the end of Roxanne's braid, repositioning the elastic band.

"My parents say I can have people spend the night this tomorrow," Monica says. "Will your mom let you come, do you think?"

"I can't," Roxanne says, "I'm going over to Syx's tomorrow after school."

"—oh," Monica says.

She's silent for a minute as the line moves forward. It isn't until they've both had their second turn on the scooter that she speaks again.

"Caitlyn and Nicole are coming," Monica says. "And Lindsey's coming."

"Oh, that's good," Roxanne says.

Even if she can't come, she won't be ruining Monica's chance to have a sleepover altogether; that's a relief.

There's a pause.

"Lindsey moved here from New Jersey," Monica says. "Her mom is in the army."

Roxanne makes a noise of mild interest.

"I went over to Lindsey's house last weekend," Monica says. "Her family has a dog."

"That's cool," Roxanne says. "What kind of dog?"

"—a black lab," Monica says. "His name is Max. You still don't have a dog, do you?"

"No," Roxanne says. She laughs, a thought occurring. "Syx made a robot pet out of my dad's toaster, though. After he set it on fire on accident. It was pretty funny; he was trying to—"

"Max does tricks," Monica says.

Roxanne blinks, startled and confused at the interruption.

"Oh," she says, "that's—that's cool."

At this point, she is handed the scooter, and has to propel herself across the gym floor for the third time. When she's finished, she watches Monica push herself across the floor. Monica's face is set in a scowl and her legs work furiously as she turns the scooter around and races back.

Why she's bothering to go so fast, Roxanne doesn't know. Monica's always been competitive, but it's not like Mrs. Kimber gives out prizes or anything in gym class, and their group is already second to last. Maybe she just doesn't want to end up in last.

She doesn't, anyway, and then Mrs. Kimber tells them to stack the scooters in the equipment closet and go line up.

"Lindsey's my best friend," Monica says, as they're moving to the line.

Roxanne makes a noise of approval.

"I like Lindsey," Roxanne says. "She's nice."

Lindsey had been very understanding that day at lunch when Roxanne asked her not to correct Syx's pronunciation. And, the next day, after Roxanne had quietly corrected Syx herself once, Lindsey had taken Roxanne aside and reminded her in an undertone that Syx didn't like to be corrected. Roxanne had explained about her and Syx's arrangement, but she'd definitely appreciated Lindsey worrying about Syx's feelings.

"I'm sorry I can't come tomorrow," Roxanne says. "It sounds fun."

"—yeah," Monica says.

Syx is already in line; Roxanne moves to stand behind him.

Monica moves to stand with Lindsey.

* * *

That night, when Roxanne is in bed, reading, her mother comes in.

"I just got off the phone with Anne Hansen," she says. "Why didn't you tell me Monica had invited you to a sleepover tomorrow?"

Roxanne lowers her book.

"Because I'm going over to Syx and Minion's tomorrow," she says. "Remember?"

"I'm sure they won't mind if you leave a little early, dear," her mother says. "And then you can go to Monica's."

"—but I don't want to leave Syx and Minion's early," Roxanne says. "And Monica's having other people over, too; it's not like she won't be able to have the sleepover just because I'm not there."

Her mother frowns.

"Roxanne," she says, "it's important not to drop your old friends just because you have a new friend. You and Monica were always so close."

Roxanne blinks, taken aback.

She's never…been under the impression that she and Monica were ever particularly close.

Back before she went to 'Lil Gifted, Roxanne had spent more time with Monica than with Caitlyn or Nicole, yes, but that was just because Monica's mother used to work with Roxanne's. Right?

"—I'm not dropping them," Roxanne says. "We sit together at lunch and everything. And I already told Syx and Minion I would come over."

"And you will go over to Syx's still," her mother says. "I'll just come and pick you straight up as soon as I'm finished with work. And then we can drop you off at Monica's. Why don't you pack a bag tonight, so it's all ready for tomorrow?"

* * *

"This is _awful!_ " Minion says, as soon as the three of them are alone together in Syx and Minion's cell bedroom. "I can't _stand_ this; we have to think of something else!"

He's in his new robot suit today, and his metal hands gesture agitatedly. He looks—kind of pale, too, Roxanne thinks, and tense.

"Is it always this bad when you guys are separated?" she asks.

Syx shakes his head.

"It would be one thing if it was a—a voluntary separation!" Minion says, feet clanking as he paces the little cell. "Instead of something we're being forced into, and if he wasn't leaving everyday to go to—school."

He says the last word as if it's a curse.

"It isn't like 'Lil Gifted, Minion," Syx says. "I told you; it's—"

"I know you told me, Sir," Minion snaps. "Unfortunately, my instincts happen to run on past experience! And don't tell me you wouldn't lie to me if it was bad; we both know that you would!"

Syx opens his mouth as if he's going to deny it, but when Minion gives him a hard look, he flushes and looks down at the floor.

"I wouldn't, though," Roxanne says.

Minion looks at her.

"Yes, I know," Minion bites out. "Thank goodness you're there; it's the only thing that's kept me from going completely out of my mind with worry. It really isn't bad, Miss Roxanne?"

"No," Roxanne says. "It really isn't. It's—the kids are nicer here; we have friends—Syx, too—and Miss Anderson is nothing like Miss Simmons."

"She's nice!" Syx says, face screwed up as though this still confuses him deeply. "She lets us help people! She doesn't make me stand in the bad corner! She didn't make me stand in the bad corner even when I set my desk on fire yesterday!"

Minion shoots a look at Roxanne, who nods in confirmation.

"I think maybe she doesn't even dislike me!" Syx says, gesturing wildly with both hands, his eyes wide.

Again Minion looks at Roxanne, hope warring with incredulity in his expression. She nods again, slowly, thinking. Syx and Minion begin talking again to each other, but Roxanne isn't really completely listening.

"—Minion," she says, interrupting them, "were you—did you mean it, when you said you wanted us to think of another plan?"

Minion and Syx both turn to look at her.

"…do you have another plan, Miss Roxanne?" Minion asks.

Roxanne bites her lip.

"I think I might," she says, and starts to explain.

* * *

Minion is on board with the plan almost immediately; an indication, Roxanne thinks, of how much this involuntary separation really is upsetting him. Syx, though, is worried—he's terribly concerned for Minion's safety. In the end, they all agree to give it another week—wait and see if Syx thinks it's feasible.

They don't have much time for talking about plans, in any case; Minion's tutoring is vitally important whether they decide to use Roxanne's new plan or not. The three of them head down to the prison library, where the Warden has let Syx build a very large tank for Minion's tutoring.

The tank was Syx's idea; Minion's species, he says, communicated both verbally and gesturally—so it should be easier for Minion to understand about letters and reading if he thinks of them not as symbols he's having to write with the hands of his robot body, but as patterns to swim in.

Minion and Syx both get into the tank; Roxanne looks on from the other side of the tank's glass walls. She can see Syx's mouth moving as he tells Minion the names of letters, and then the two of them swim each letter together. They've clearly been working on this before now; Minion goes through the letter formations with confidence.

(it's like an underwater dance, Roxanne thinks, watching them, and wishes, wistfully, that she could move that gracefully either in the water or out of it.)

After the letter review, Minion gets back into his robot body while Syx remains in the tank. This is the part, Roxanne knows, where her help becomes useful.

Syx swims a random letter formation. Minion, frowning in concentration, watches him.

"R?" he asks Roxanne.

"Yes!" she says excitedly, and gives Syx a thumbs up to show that Minion has gotten the letter correct.

Then Syx moves on to another letter formation.

They go through the whole alphabet seven times, random letter order each time. Minion only makes five mistakes.

Syx is grinning as he climbs out of the tank and Roxanne is, too. Minion heaves a sigh of relief and then smiles proudly as well.

Monica's sleepover isn't bad, when Roxanne gets there. They eat pizza and play with makeup and paint each others nails, and then they watch a movie.

Roxanne is the only one awake at the end of the movie, but not because she was particularly interested in it. She spent the entire time it was playing thinking about Minion's tutoring, and going over her new plan in her head.

* * *

On Monday, when they get to school, the classroom has been rearranged slightly. The bookshelves have been moved down closer to Miss Anderson's desk, and the art supplies have been moved to the other side of the room, leaving one of the room's corners empty.

A desk has been placed in this corner—not a wooden desk, like the rest of the desks in the room, but a metal one. Hooks have been hung on the wall; on these hooks are several pairs of plastic safety glasses and a lab coat. There's a fire extinguisher on the wall beside the hooks.

On the metal desk is a scale; a bunsen burner; several glass beakers; and a very battered, very old microscope.

Syx and Roxanne walk into the room together; Roxanne hears the sharp breath he takes, hears the way he stops breathing after he takes it.

She watches him as they both go to their desks; he looks dazed, and he can't seem to keep his eyes off of the rearranged corner.

When everyone's in their desks, Miss Anderson moves to stand in front of the chalkboard. Then she smiles at them all and explains that this is the new science corner, that people are allowed to work on projects in the science corner when they've finished their other work—and that the first thing they're going to do today is go over some science safety guidelines.

As she leads them all over to the science corner to demonstrate, Roxanne catches Syx's gaze.

His eyes are very wide, with a sheen of tears to them, and when they meet hers, he swallows visibly and then nods.

Roxanne nods back in understanding.

The plan is a go.

* * *

 _...to be continued._

* * *

 **HAPPY DAY SEVEN OF MY NINE DAYS OF MEGAMIND!**

 **Thank you all so much for continuing to read and review. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter update!**


	6. Chapter 6

They don't put the plan into effect right away; even Minion sees the necessity of making sure he's reading first. And he seems calmer, now that they do have a definite plan.

The next weekend, Roxanne goes over to the prison every day and they work on Minion's reading. He's progressed during the week; Syx goes through the alphabet formations ten times on Friday after school, and Minion doesn't miss a single letter.

Syx wants to move on to spelling out words for Minion to read in the tank, but Roxanne says they'd better make sure Minion can write the letters, too.

Using a pencil throws Minion off; he says it's the 'short dry strokes' that confuse and distract him. He has better luck when he switches to a pen; and even better luck when Syx gives him a paintbrush and paint. The fluidity of the movements with the paintbrush makes it easier for him to focus.

Syx included the letter blends in his swimming alphabet—ch, th, sh, and so on—he really is right; they do make their own unique sounds distinct from their component letters. Roxanne remembers learning how to read, how hard the letter blends were to understand. Minion definitely catches on to them much faster this way, because he sees 'ch' as a pattern completely distinct from 'c' and 'h'.

They move on to Syx swimming simple words for Minion the next day; Minion catches onto that impressively quickly. When Syx comes out of the tank, though, and they try having Minion read the same simple words from a written page, Minion is unable to do it. He says, frustrated, that the letters stay too still on the page—like they're dead—is how he puts it.

None of them can think of a way around it, so on Sunday, Syx swims numbers for Minion, instead of trying reading again.

Minion doesn't actually have trouble with the math part of math at all; the only thing he struggles with is reading out the numbers themselves.

"Minion's excellent at math," Syx says, "If you say a problem out loud, he comes up with the answer quickly, and he's really fantastic at geometry; he has amazing spatial awareness!"

"Swimming in schools," Minion says, with a gesture of his fins, "and in open water. You have to."

Roxanne makes an impressed noise.

Their next weekend, they work on cursive; Minion picks up cursive quicker and easier than print because of the way the letters all flow together in cursive.

He writes it fairly easily and is able to read it, although slowly and very uncertainly.

Interestingly, he actually tends to read words better as Syx and Roxanne are writing them, rather than after they've finished writing. He says the words are more alive that way.

* * *

On Monday, Syx gets on the bus with an unusually full backpack and an excited gleam in his eye.

"New invention?" Roxanne asks, as soon as he sits down.

He grins at her.

"Yes," he says, "and it's brilliant! I'll show you in the science corner when we get to shool!"

They've moved on to chapter books in reading class; they're reading a book called The Witches together. Miss Anderson has them read paragraphs out loud in turn each day, and then they fill out a worksheet by themselves to make sure they've understood the chapter. After everyone's finished with their worksheets, Miss Anderson leads them in a discussion about the chapter, going over the answers to the worksheet questions.

Syx finishes the worksheet first today, of course; when Roxanne, finishing second, turns her worksheet over and goes to the science corner, he's already there and has gotten the new invention out of his backpack.

It looks a little bit like a computer, but only a little bit. It's much smaller and lighter—basically just a keyboard attached to a screen, with a few strange instruments wired to the keyboard. The keyboard is different from a normal keyboard; it's black instead of grayish white, the keys are bigger than normal keys, and the letters on them are written in cursive, with extra keys for each of the letter blends.

"What is it?" Roxanne asks, careful to keep her voice down so Miss Anderson won't think they're being too distracting to the other kids.

"I don't have a name for it yet," Syx whispers back, "but it's for Minion! To help him read and write. Look!"

He presses the power button and the screen lights up, blank and white. The keys light up, too, their letters starting to glow—but the glow moves on each key, brightness following the outline of the letters.

"Writing them!" Roxanne says, understanding hitting her, "So the letters aren't dead for him!"

Syx types, pressing the glowing keys quickly, letters appearing on the screen in cursive:

 _exactly_

"And watch—" Syx says.

A clipboard is mounted to the right side of the keyboard, with extra clips added on each side of the board, and on the bottom of the board. Syx takes a notebook from his backpack, tears out a blank sheet of notebook paper and clips the paper into place on the clipboard.

There's something almost like a little folded arm on the right side of the keyboard, too; Syx unfolds this. It terminates in a kind of metal grip; Syx puts a pencil in this and tightens it so that it's held securely in place.

On the left side of the computer, a thin black thing that's shaped like a paintbrush is plugged into the keyboard; Syx picks it up and presses a button on the brush-less end.

Roxanne jumps a little in surprise as the metal arm moves, turning the pencil point-down and placing it at the top of the page, against the paper, as if poised to write.

Using the paintbrush thing, Syx writes in cursive on the screen:

 _you can write in cursive here and it appears in print on the paper._

Roxanne gasps, delighted, as the metal arm moves, writing the words in print on the sheet of notepaper.

Syx taps the paintbrush on the top edge of the screen, as if it's a magic wand, and the letters on the cursive side begin to glow and move like the letters on the keyboard, glow following each word in turn. He reaches up to the screen and wipes out the word 'and' with the tip of his finger. On the screen, the word disappears as if his fingertip is an eraser.

The metal arm moves up, turns the pencil around so that the eraser is pointed down, moves to the word 'and' on the page, and erases it in three firm strokes. Then it moves up, spins again, so that the lead tip is downwards again.

Syx rewrites the word 'and' in its place on the screen again, and the metal arm rewrites the word on the page in print. Then he moves down on the screen and writes:

 _You see?_

On the notepage, the metal arm writes the same thing in print.

"That's amazing," Roxanne breathes.

Syx looks at her sidelong, a small smile starting to curl the edges of his mouth.

Then he clicks the paintbrush again.

This time when he moves the paintbrush over the screen, he writes in cursive:

 _And look what else it can do!_

The metal arm writes the same thing on the next line of the notepaper in cursive, too.

Roxanne gives a breathless laugh of amazement and Syx, really smiling now, clicks the paintbrush once more and sets it down.

"It's in his handwriting, too!" he says, "Even the print! I had him write the letters for me and programmed the shapes into it!"

He takes the pencil from the metal arm and folds the arm down.

"And it does one more thing," he says. "Hand me a book!"

Roxanne hands him the extra copy of The Witches that Miss Anderson keeps on her bookshelf. He opens it to the first page, then picks up the last of the mysterious instruments wired to the keyboard.

This instrument looks like one of the price scanner guns that they use at the grocery store. He aims this at the first page of the book and presses the trigger.

There's a quiet click, and then the words of the books first page start slowly to appear on the screen in cursive, as if someone's writing them.

 _A Note About Witches: In fairy-tales, witches always wear silly black hats and black cloaks, and they…_

Syx puts down the scanner and looks at Roxanne.

"What do you think?" he asks.

Roxanne, grinning, puts her hands on his shoulders and gives him a light, delighted shake.

"It's fantastic!" she says, hugging him quickly. "Syx, you're so smart; you're a genius! Has Minion tried it out yet?"

"Not yet," Syx says, grinning widely at her. "I just finished it this morning and I wanted to show it to you. We're going to test it out when I get back home today!"

"I wish I could be there," Roxanne says.

"So do I," he says. "Really, though—you think it's going to be useful?"

"Definitely," Roxanne says.

"Do you think I should change anything?"

"I—" Roxanne pauses, thinking.

"You'll need to add a way," she says, "to adjust the speed of the words when he's using it to read. He might need it slower for now, and later he'll be able to read faster."

"Oooh, yes," Syx says, "speed adjustment; I hadn't thought of that!"

He begins to pack the device away again into his backpack.

"The Read-Write," Roxanne says suddenly.

Syx, zipping his backpack, looks at her inquiringly.

"That's what you should call it," she says.

"The Read-Write," Syx says, eyes lighting up as he gets the pun. "The Read-Right; ahahaha, yes! I love it!"

Roxanne laughs, too.

"All right, class," Miss Anderson says, "is everyone finished with their worksheets?"

Syx and Roxanne go to sit again at their desks, and join in the discussion.

Afterwards, as they're getting out their social studies books, one of the other kids, Dwayne, raises his hand.

"Dwayne?" Miss Anderson says.

"Can Syx and Roxanne show us the thing they were using?"

Roxanne glances over at Syx; he's wide-eyed with surprise, looking at Dwayne.

"Syx?" Miss Anderson says. "Roxanne? Would you like to give the class a demonstration?"

Syx's eyes go even wider as he looks at Miss Anderson. Roxanne looks at her, too; she's smiling.

Roxanne glances back at Syx, who's already looking at her, a question in his eyes. She nods decisively.

This wasn't originally in her plan, but it will definitely be useful.

"Um," Syx says, "yes. I—you'll all be able to see easier if everyone comes over to the science corner?"

He glances uncertainly at Miss Anderson, who nods encouragingly at him.

Roxanne and Syx lead the way over to the table in the science corner and Syx starts to set the device back up again.

"This is the Read-Write," Roxanne says, raising her voice slightly so that everyone can hear. "Syx made it. It's for his—"

She hesitates, looking over at Syx, not sure what relationship word approximation he would prefer to use.

"Brother," he says, looking at Miss Anderson. "It's for my brother."

"He has trouble reading and writing," Roxanne says, "Syx made the Read-Write to help him."

"He understands movement best," Syx says, warming to his theme, beginning to gesture excitedly. "We figured out that he can understand written language if the letters and words appear as movements, rather than static, unmoving symbols!"

He turns on the Read-Write with a flourish.

"You see?" he says, pointing to the glowing keys. "Movements!"

"Why are the letters cursive?" Gary asks.

"Cursive is clearer for him than print," Syx says. "The movement is more fluid; it feels more natural to him that way. Now—" he begins to set up the arm of the Read-Write again, putting a pencil into the grip, "—I'll show you how it works."

Everyone seems really interested in the Read-Write, Miss Anderson included. They all lean forward to watch as Syx continues the demonstration, answering their questions, explaining things. Roxanne helps, jumping in from time to time to break Syx's explanations down into simpler words when they get too complicated for their classmates to understand.

Syx gets more confident as the demonstration goes on, his gestures and expressions growing gradually more and more animated, until he's practically glowing with happiness, his hands dancing in the air as he talks.

Roxanne, watching him, smiles so hard that her face hurts.

* * *

 _...to be continued._

* * *

 **HAPPY DAY EIGHT OF MY NINE DAYS OF MEGAMIND! Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing; it makes me so happy. I hope the update makes you all happy, too!**


	7. Chapter 7

Syx and Roxanne linger outside the doorway of the classroom that day after school until everyone but Miss Anderson is gone.

As the last of their classmates disappears down the hallway, Roxanne glances over at Syx. He looks pale, but when his eyes meet hers, he nods.

Roxanne takes his hand and gives it a quick squeeze, then lets go of him and ducks back into the classroom, leaving Syx hidden in the hall.

Miss Anderson is at her desk, sorting through papers; she looks up when Roxanne comes in.

"I just wanted," Roxanne says, moving to Miss Anderson's desk, "to say thank you. For letting Syx do the demonstration with the Read-Write today. At our old school…" she trails off, making a face.

"You both had a rather rough time of it there, it seems," Miss Anderson says with a sympathetic smile.

"Yes," Roxanne says. "Especially Syx. Miss Simmons—she didn't treat him like a person."

Miss Anderson frowns, her head tilting slightly; she clearly doesn't completely understand.

"Because he doesn't look human," Roxanne says. "She didn't treat him like a person because he doesn't look human. She called him 'it'."

Miss Anderson sucks in a sharp breath, looking horrified. She shakes her head—a small movement, more an expression of abhorrence, rather than disbelief, Roxanne is pretty sure. For a small moment, her mouth works as though she might say something.

"And she's not the only one," Roxanne says, before she can. "When Syx was little, a bunch of people from a government lab tried to get him classified as non-sentient."

Miss Anderson looks pale, and rather as if she might be sick.

"They said he was like a parrot," Roxanne says. "Some kind of—a trained animal. They made him take tests. There was a hearing and everything before the judge finally said he was sentient."

"I'm so sorry," Miss Anderson says faintly.

"Yes," Roxanne says. "Well—Syx did fine with the tests, of course, but—that's why Syx is so worried about his brother. Because—reading and stuff like that doesn't come easy to him, the way it does Syx, and what if he doesn't do so good on the tests?"

"Oh," Miss Anderson says, "but—if Syx has already been classified as sentient, then surely his brother—"

"They're not blood relatives," Roxanne says. "And he isn't the same species as Syx. He looks less like humans than Syx does. That's why he doesn't go to school."

"—I'm so sorry," Miss Anderson says again.

Roxanne swallows.

"Yeah," she says. "Me, too. They turned in his brother's sentience paperwork, but it's going to take a while. And his brother really wants to go to school."

Again, Miss Anderson seems to be trying to find the words to say. Syx, though, comes into the room now, just as he and Roxanne planned.

"Roxanne?" he says, hovering in the doorway. "The bus is going to be leaving soon."

"Right, sorry," Roxanne says. She puts on her backpack and starts to walk to the door. "I was just—we were talking about the Read-Write, and your brother's paperwork."

(it's important that Miss Anderson knows Roxanne's not telling her this behind Syx's back)

Syx makes a noise of understanding, and nods.

"I hope your brother's paperwork gets approved very soon, Syx," Miss Anderson says. "I look forward to him joining us here at school."

"Yes," Syx says, and bites his lip. "If he does get to come to sh—school—would you let him use the Read-Write for class?"

Miss Anderson blinks.

"I certainly would," she says slowly. "And—your brother…it sounds as if he has some form of dyslexia? The Read-Write is an assistive technology device. Schools are legally required to allow students with disabilities to use their assistive technology devices."

The sheer and utter relief on Syx's face is almost painful to look at.

"Thank you," he breathes.

"You really should patent the device, you know, Syx," Miss Anderson says, "it's quite amazing; I've never seen anything like it."

Syx looks as if Roxanne could knock him over with a feather. She takes his hand; he glances down at their joined hands, then up at her face.

"—ah!" he says, "I—yes, right; we should—the bus—"

Roxanne leads him to the door, and out into the hall.

"So?" she says in an undertone. "That went good, right?"

"Yes," Syx says dazedly. "Yes, it did."

Roxanne squeezes his hand. He gives a breathless kind of laugh, shakes his head, and squeezes back.

"Phase two of the plan tomorrow," he says.

"If Minion is ready," Roxanne agrees as the very impatient bus driver motions them onto the bus.

"I wonder if you could adapt the Read-Write for other people," Roxanne says thoughtfully, as the bus pulls out of the school driveway.

Syx looks at her questioningly.

"Like—the scan part of it, instead of having it in cursive, you could have it in bigger print, for people who have trouble seeing. Or if you added a voice to it, then it could read it out loud to you…"

Syx's face lights up.

"Oooh, I like that!" he says. "What else?"

"Oh—" Roxanne frowns, considering. "Well, you could—"

* * *

The next day, Syx's backpack looks very full again, and he puts it very carefully on his lap when he sits down next to Roxanne on the bus. Roxanne looks at him sharply and he nods.

She gulps, her stomach flipping over with nerves.

Syx tightens his hold on the backpack tightly. Roxanne puts her hand on top of his and takes a deep breath.

Okay.

Okay, they can do this.

They can do this.

* * *

Roxanne's nerves wind themselves tighter and tighter; by the time the lunch bell rings, she's almost ready to scream. And if she's feeling like this, she can't imagine how Syx must feel.

The other kids file out the door and into the hall; Roxanne and Syx move aside into the Science Corner and wait for them to go. Miss Anderson, seeing them waiting, looks at them questioningly.

"Miss-Anderson-may-we-please-talk-to-you-about-something-important," Syx says, words running together.

Miss Anderson blinks.

"Yes, of course," she says.

"Is it okay if I close the door?" Roxanne asks. "It's—we don't want anyone else to overhear."

"All right," Miss Anderson says slowly.

Roxanne closes the door and goes back to stand beside Syx.

"You remember we told you about Syx's brother," Roxanne says.

"Of course, yes," Miss Anderson says.

Roxanne glances at Syx; he's looking pale again, and clutching his backpack so tightly his knuckles have turned white.

"You remember the first day of shool," Syx says.

(he doesn't even try to pronounce the word correctly; Roxanne can tell he's fighting simply to get the words out.)

"You remember—what you told me," he says, voice tight, "about show and tell."

Roxanne shifts her weight so that she's closer to Syx, presses their shoulders together. He takes a quick, uneven breath and, like he's tearing off a bandage, unzips his backpack.

"I'd like you to meet my brother," he says. "Minion."

Minion squints slightly when Syx takes his sphere out of the backpack—adjusting to the light after the darkness of being inside the bag. His eyes meet Roxanne's, and she gives him the most reassuring smile she can. Minion turns towards Miss Anderson.

"um—hello," he says, voice nervous. "It's, uh, it's nice to meet you."

Miss Anderson's eyes go very wide.

"Oh," she says faintly, "oh."

She swallows hard, shakes her head.

"—and I assumed you were a pet," she says, "I am so sorry."

Minion flutters his fins in a surprised motion..

"Oh," he says. "That's—thank you?"

Syx puts his ball down on the desk.

"But, really," Minion says, "we were—I do pretend to be a pet mostly; we figured it would be safer, but—"

He hesitates, and rolls the ball so he can glance at Syx, who touches the tips of his fingers, quick and light, to the sphere. Then Minion looks again at Miss Anderson.

"—but I want to stop doing that now," he says. "I want—I want to go to school with Sir and Miss Roxanne."

This time, when he rolls the ball, it's Roxanne Minion glances at. She touches her fingertips to the glass the same way Syx did.

"And we thought," Roxanne says, "that maybe you would help us make that happen."

Miss Anderson swallows visibly, and then she nods.

"Yes," she says, "yes, of course, I will."

Beside Roxanne, Syx lets out a shuddery breath, the tense line of his shoulders relaxing. Roxanne takes his hand and holds it tightly.

"Oh," he says, sounding near tears. "Oh."

He can't seem to say anything else.

* * *

Things do get a bit—messy—after that, but, then, they always knew that was going to happen if they used the plan.

Miss Anderson has Minion rest on her desk until the end of school, and then she asks Syx to stay after school. She doesn't ask Roxanne to stay, too, but she doesn't seem surprised when Roxanne does.

And then the phone calls start—first Miss Anderson calls the office and has the superintendent, principal, and the school's special education teacher all come to her classroom, and then she calls the Warden and Dr. Kelley, and they both come down to the school.

The Warden is glowering and gnawing at his mustache, and Dr. Kelley looks—well, Roxanne always thought that hopping mad was just a weird thing that people said, but Dr. Kelley looks mad enough to start hopping at any moment.

The adults all send Syx, Minion, and Roxanne out into the hall, close the door, and argue. Luckily, the classroom door is thin enough that when Roxanne tries to eavesdrop, this time she's able to hear some of it.

 _"—even without citizenship and sentience documentation—"_

 _"—legally required not to share that information about our students, Dr. Kelley; they'd have to have a warrant—"_

 _"—called an Individualized Education Program; all children who receive special education will—"_

 _"—wanting to speak to you concerning Syx as well; he's very gifted; an IEP for him would—"_

Roxanne doesn't hear who it is who decides to call her dad, and she's not completely sure if he's there as her dad or as a lawyer.

By then, the whole thing's gone on long enough that it's almost time for Roxanne's mother to be home from work, so Roxanne's dad calls her, and she comes down to the school, too, and joins in the—by now very heated—discussion. Roxanne's still out in the hall with Syx and Minion, but they can all hear the upraised voices.

Eventually, it's over, and the adults all come out into the hall. Roxanne's mother takes her wrist in a very tight grip.

"Does Minion get to go to school?" Roxanne blurts out, as he mother starts to walk quickly down the hall.

Her mother doesn't answer, so she glances back at the rest of them. She catches Miss Anderson's eye, and Miss Anderson gives her a very small nod.

Roxanne grins and lets her mother pull her the rest of the way down the hallway.

Not even her mother's angry lecture, after they get home, about respecting authority figures and not interfering with Syx and Minion's parents, can't dampen Roxanne's spirits. She doesn't even try to argue, but just lets her mother go on until she's finished.

Even when her mother insists that she write the Warden and Dr. Kelley each an apology note, Roxanne doesn't argue.

The notes she writes are as full of lies as the apology note her parents once made her write to Miss Simmons, but she writes them with a light heart.

The next day, Minion, wearing his robotic suit, stands at the front of the classroom and introduces himself.

Miss Anderson writes his name on the board—in print, first, and then after that she writes it again in cursive.

And then Minion sits down at his own desk.

"I'm grounded for a month," Roxanne tells Syx, grinning.

"Oh, us, too!" Syx says happily, and Roxanne laughs.

* * *

Her mother drives her to the prison after she gets home from work, and marches Roxanne up to the Warden's office. She hovers angrily in the doorway as Roxanne hands the apology note to him.

His eyebrows go up when he takes it, and his mustache moves thoughtfully, as if he might speak. Finally, though, he just nods.

So Roxanne takes that as her cue to leave, and to let her mother march her down to Dr. Kelley's office.

Dr. Kelley's eyebrows snap down when he takes the letter, and he actually reads the whole thing in front of her.

Then he looks up at her, wearing that expression of sardonic amusement.

"You," he says, "didn't mean a damn word of this, did you?"

Roxanne hesitates only a moment.

"No," she says honestly, "I didn't."

Behind her, in the doorway, her mother makes an angry noise.

Dr. Kelley glowers at her silently for a long moment.

Then lips twitch, and, to Roxanne's surprise, he suddenly bursts out laughing.

"Oh, go away, you awful child!" Dr. Kelley covers his face with one hand and waves her out the door.

* * *

After Roxanne, Syx, and Minion are all finally un-grounded, Roxanne helps Syx work on creating additional assistive technology features for the Read-Write.

When Syx patents it two months later, he puts her name down on the form as co-creator, and refuses to listen when she tries to convince him to take it off.

Minion does get one of those things the adults were talking about, an IEP. He's still able to stay in their classroom with them most of the time, but sometimes he goes to see the special education teacher for help with reading and writing. And he's allowed to use the Read-Write, which really is helpful.

Syx gets one of the IEP things, too; him being allowed to work on other things after he's finished with his classroom work is one of the things that gets written into his.

Minion is very popular with the other kids—and with the parents of the other kids, too, although it usually takes the adults a little longer to get past the whole fish-and-prosthetic-suit thing than it did the kids.

A month after Minion joins their class, Gary tells them excitedly at lunch that his parents finally are going to let him be in special ed for math.

"They said they didn't want me getting made fun of," Gary says, waving a french fry, "but I told them Minion is in special ed, and nobody makes fun of Minion!"

Gary and Minion also join a extra tutoring group for children with learning disabilities at the community center.

When Syx and Roxanne make several more Read-Writes with various experimental features, Minion gives them to the other members of the group so that they can test the devices and suggest improvements.

Minion's sentience and citizenship paperwork is approved that summer.

Nobody even attempts to contest his sentience.

Roxanne, wearing a nice dress and new shoes that pinch her feet, sits beside Syx during the hearing, holding his hand tightly. When the judge signs the papers, they both jump to their feet excitedly, bouncing up and down and hugging each other.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Roxanne says, as Syx laughs joyfully.

"Sir! Miss Roxanne!"

Minion, robotic suit clanking, moves swiftly towards them, and the two of them pull him into the hug.

* * *

 _the end._

* * *

 **HAPPY DAY NINE OF MY NINE DAYS OF MEGAMIND! o{}( :D~**

 **A big thank you to siadea for giving me information about special education (during the holidays too!)**

 **Thank you for continuing to read and review! I'm so glad to have you guys as my readers! I hope you enjoyed the conclusion to Safety Instructions Not Included!**

 **The Safe If We Stand Close Together universe will continue! The next story in the series is the already-published Terms of Endearment. Following that will be a story called Changing Times (yet to be published as of 12/25/17). While waiting for that fic, you can re-read my story Given Names, which serves as a prequel to it (as well as to Code: Safeword)!**

 **(I plan to continue the Safe If We Stand Close Together universe after that as well; my current outline has it going on through their high school years and into their first year in college!)**

 **THANK YOU AGAIN FOR READING!**

* * *

 **update on the series: the fic to follow Terms of Endearment will actually be called Star Sweater, and Changing Times will follow that.**


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